Biiiig cats!!

Today we took packed up a picnic and went to Paradise Wildlife Park for the day :) We haven't been there since the girls were young but they still remebered lots about it!

I am so pleased with some of the photos I managed to get ! There are lots of 'high' viewing areas to see the nimals from, plus we were just lucky being in the right places at the right times!

So big cat photo overload tonight!

Holly isn't well at the moment, think she has an ear infection :( She was awake quite a bit last night and it seems to have flared up again now . So it's off to the docs for us in the morning! I'm guessing it could be all the underwater swimming she's been

doing.....



I'll be back with some more photos soon!

BBQ's, Bowkis's and badminton!

We got up early this morning (well early for the holidays!) as we needed to take Em to the Dr's about her ears, where they have been pierced.One has gone very swollen and was very gungey this morning :( Managed to get an appointment at 10am and she's been told just to keep using surgical spirit to clean them, and they should heal up properly soon.She is so disappointed...it's been nearly 9 weeks since she had them pierced and she is longing to change her earrings!

So this afternoon we had guests!Anna,Peter,Lilly and Izzy to be precise! Izzy was in the pool with Holly within about 5 miunutes of arriving!The weather looked decidedly dodgy when they arrived but luckily the sun came out again and we stayed warm! The girls played happily in the pool while the grown ups chatted and drank beer (well, the men did!)Geoff was in charge of the barbie and we ended the day with a game of badminton!We discovered that Geoff and Peter both love Dirty Sanchez...whilst both Anna and I just don't 'get' it! I mean, why skid on ice with a bare bum (and much worse!) ?! All four girls got on brilliantly as usual :) And whilst she didn't go in the pool Anna did have a quick bounce on the trampoline!

We had a fab afternoon...thank you for coming to see us! Slightly blurry photo of us is courtesy of Em.bless!

Gigi in the house!!

The fabulous Gigi is our GDT over at Pencil Lines this week! I love this sketch and it was just perfect to use to make a layout about our recent trip to Anna's with Lyzzy and Beth :)

As i said a couple of days ago, I absolutely love Gigi's work and am so excited that she agreed to join us at Pencil Lines this week!

Supplies this week...it's a long list!

Scenic Route Laurel paper

AC Thickers chipboard, inked

Queen & Co heart brads

Chopped up Angel Kiss blooms!(An idea inspired by how Annie used aHeidi Swapp floral!)

Bazzill spotty brads

Heidi Swapp chipboard

Charlie & Lola confetti hearts

Jolee swirly stickers (free from an ebay seller!)

Doodlebug paper frills

Hedid swapp acetate flower

And this is what we have been doing the rest of the weekend! Yep, the pool is finally up and working (long story!) The girls absolutely love it! I even ventured in myself this afternoon....after the initial shock of the cold water, you do warm up quite quickly, honestly!

I can't believe it's the last week of the school hols already though...:( We have a few things planned for this week as Geoff is still on holiday.On Tuesday we have the Bowkis family joining us for pool fun and a bbq! We also have a trip to Paradise Park planned and lunch at Frankie & Benny's.

Enjoy the sunshine!

A sneak....

...and a whole one!

Here's a little smeak from my Pencil Lines layout for Sunday :) Loved this sketch and I think I may use it again!

The sunshine finally materialised at about 4.30 this afternoon! So we went out this afternoon to get those elusive school plimsolls for Holly...what is it with them this year?? Hardly anywhere has them in stock (and I have been looking since the beginning of the hols!) I think we have everything now...all new lunch bags and drinks bottles , all new uniform for Holly, new shoes for both of them! We haven't got Em much this year as most of hers still fits okay and as it's her last year at this school I'm buying as little as possible!

And here is the other layout I finished off yesterday.Made using Love Elsie Betty papers & rub-ons, Dunelm bloom, Angel Kiss flower and KI Memories Ice Candy dot. And yes , the title is long, but it's the line Holly came out with one Saturday when Em was trying to get something done in her room.That photo is not posed, she was in a real grump and stropped about the garden for quite a while!

Fingers crossed for some sunshine tomorrow!

I am here.....

...just not on the PC much at the moment!

Hmm...so what have we been up to this week....Geoff's mum & dad came down to visit us from Sunday to Wednesday.The idea was that by coming down in August , the weather would be good (they normally visit around October time)....err...not so! It has been miserable here for I can't remember how long now :( Each day the weather report seems to promise sunshine for the next day, but it never quite materialises!

So today we dragged the kitchen table out and had a gane of table tennis! Please don't let this lead you to believe we have a huge kitchen - quite the opposite! So you can imagine how many near misses we had! Other than that the girls have been amusing themselves really well,we've been playing on the Wii...and this evening *gasp* I have scrapped! I've done my Pencil Lines layout for this week and finally finished off a layout I started at last months crop :)

I am very excited about our GDT on Pencil lines this week...as I 'asked' her!I started reading her blog whilst doing Emily's 52 week art journal (which I am waaaay behind on...)and she is now a bit of a scrapping 'hero' to me! So make sure you check us out on Sunday evening :)

Due to the rubbish weather I have hardly been using my camera plus the light is too bad to take pics of my layouts.So instead I will share the yummy wrapping paper I got from Paperchase on Tuesday.This shop is like heaven to me...so many notebooks,pens,gorgeous papers...you get the drift!! I managed to restrain myself to just three sheets of paper...this time!

I am off but will hopefully be back to share my scrapping tomorrow! And if the sun shines, maybe a photo or two!

Who stole summer?

This evening Pencil Lines has gone live with sketch 46 :) Yet again,I'm not sure about mine.My scrapping is sort of bothering me at the moment...I have so many layouts in my head that I want to do and never seem to.And the layouts I'm doing don't 'meaure up' to the ones in my head...does that make sense?!Hopefully once the girls are back at school I will get a chance to scrap 'freely'.

So this week I used
Bazzill scalloped and white cardstock
Love Elsie Betty alpha stamps
Lil Davis ric rac
Angel Kiss flowers
Jazzy brads
buttons and gems from aWHSmiths cardmaking kit
Hambly overlay


Yesterday wasn't a good day...lots of things were just aaaargh! Rotten weather, arguing kids,and a whole host more! So in the evening we had takeaway pizza, I had a relaxing bath, opened a bottle of wine and watched I am Sam.

Thank you to Shirl for giving me a blogger Schmooze award! I will upload the blinkie when I can suss out how to!!No one ever thought me cool enough to be a Rockin' Girl blogger...sniff sniff!
And I leave you with a picture nicked from Lyzzy of the cupcakes from Thursday - yum!! Need a bright photo to lift this boring post!!

Cameras and cupcakes!

We have had a fab day today! Lyzzy and Beth took us all over to spend the day at Anna's:) All five girls got on so well together...yes, I know I say that every time, but it's true!

We went for a walk to a park where Anna gave Lyzzy lessons on how to use her camera (auto is my best friend so I didn't take any of it in!!),the girls played and posed....and then we were asked to move along by a miserable old sod!! So we obligingly moved on to the path up the field and took a few more pics.I think Beth was probably the most co-operative,Holly is fairly anti - photos at the moment and Em is more into daft poses!

Lyzzy supplied the cupcakes (of which she took the best photo too!) which were yum! Though the girls were made to wait for them until we'd finished taking photos...yes, I know...we're SAD!! Sadly the rain put paid to another photo shoot but we got some good ones on Anna's step (just to make a change from a wall;) ) I think the best photos are all on either Anna or Lyzzy's cameras though .I'll still share my attempts though!

This evening Em has gone for a sleepover at my mum & dad's and then hopefully they will all be going to the zoo tomorrow (minus me....:( )

So huge thanks to Lyzzy for driving us and the Bowkis's for having us...see you again soon hopefully!

I keep...

...losing days! Was just thinking I hadn't blogged for four days...but it's only Wednesday , not Thursday!
So what's been happening...
Monday Holly went cheerlading and had a great time! They did a routine to the music from High School Musical, Holly's current obsession, so she was very happy!
Yesterday the girls spent the morning at my mum & dad's making cakes and jam tarts.We iced them in the afternoon and they are now covered in lots of E numbers!
Yesterday evening I met Shirl for the first time and Lyzzy, along with Beth and Sam and we went for a very civilised (!!) drink at the local sports stadium.Photos were taken...you're not seeing mine! Another lesson learnt, 10 year olds are shorter than me...they will always take photos looking up at my double chin!It was lovely to finally meet Shirl having 'known' her for nearly three years (that long!) through different forums.Just so she didn't feel left out, I rang Anna and she had a chat with Shirl & Lyzzy too!
Today's planned visit to the zoo was cancelled due to the rubbish weather report...needless to say it didn't rain after 8.30am until 5.30pm.....not impressed!
Tomorrow we are going over to see Anna , this time with Lyzzy and Beth in hope of decent weather for a photo shoot - fingers crossed! So glad to be part of Lyzzy's 'meet a scrapper' week !!:)

week 45

Sorry, I couldn't think of a more imaginative title !

So as you can probably guess, week 45 of Pencil Lines is now live and our GDT this week is Nisa Fiin I really wasn't sure about my layout this week...not sure why! And I couldn't keep it as 'clean' as the sketch so I chucked some flowers and ribbon on too :)


My supplies were

Basic Grey Phoebe papers
Heidi Swapp flowers
Stamps Away alpha stamps for the title
Scalloped bazzill
Doodlebug paper frills
Ki ribbon
other ribbons!

The photos are of Holly and Izzy at the park together on Tuesday :)

I did mean to blog last night but whilst Geoff was repairing a friends PC ours decided to stop working too!

Yesterday saw two rather sleepy and sometimes grumpy girls, recovering from their sleepovers! Holly was up at around 6.30am and whilst I was hoping for a lie-in, she rang to say good morning at about 8am!Em and her friend had a quick photo shoot in the garden and then set about making themselves diaries each, complete with photos on the front.

Today has been spent filling and emptying the 10ft pool in the garden.It's a long story...but if anyone ever offers you a pool, check it doesn't have a puncture in the inflatable part and holes in the part that holds the water before filling......

Tomorrow Holly is off to a cheerleading workshop in the morning.She is really looking forward to it and hopefully I may get a pic of her shaking her pom poms!

I have been over on UKS a lot the last couple of days ,checking out all the layouts and mini books for Anna's two cyber crop classes.It was great to see so many variations and ideas!I think I will be having a go at the mini book myself too :)

Right, I am off ...there is a bottle of wine in the fridge with my name on it :)

Water babe

Gotta laugh at this photo! We picked both girls up a snorkel set each in Asda on Monday...for a bargainous £1.47 each.Typically, there was only one pink set left...which Em kindly offered to Holly.Just a shame she denied all knowledge of said offering once we returned home....!However, with three witnesses telling her otherwise, she reluctantly stood by her offer and Holly retained ownership of the pink set.As it was so hot again this afternoon I put some water in the slowly deflating Princess castle pool.Holly jumped at the chance to try out the snorkel set and spent the rest of the afternoon peering into the water through her goggles!
This evening Holly has gone to her Nan & Grandad's for a sleepover, Em will have her turn next week.So tonight Em has her friend here for a sleepover...it's now 11.10pm and they're still awake!Which is fine as long as they don't wake up early tomorrow morning!
Anna has now jetted off to sunnier climes (SOB!) but has a little RAK giveaway going on over at her blog.Check it out!

Flying by....

Isn't it funny how at the beginning of the holidays 6 weeks seems like such a long time and you have all these things planned to 'fill' the time?And suddenly we're almost half way through and we don't seem to have seen half the people we were meant to!

This morning we went shopping for school shoes.Luckily it was a bit of a breeze this year and both girls are happy with the shoes that they were fitted with.As Em gets older, her feet are thinning out and shoe buying is getting a bit more enjoyable!I love the ones she has this year :)

We then went into Claire's (I know, glutton for punishment!) where Holly treated herself to this new spotty headband.We also had Em's ears checked as it's nearly six weeks since she had them pierced.They don't seem to be healing so we have to go back again in two weeks time.After that we walked over to the library where the girls both chose a few books each.

The afternoon was spent with Holly being moody and 'having no-one to play with' whilst I got on with some ironing and hoovering etc and Em lost herself in a book!

As the weather is good and we're all home, I have been subjecting the girls to having their photo taken a lot! Yes, I know, it's that wall again....but believe me, junk gets in the background when ever I try and take a photo somewhere else in the back garden!

Hmm...I have no idea what I pressed to make half of this post blue..and no idea how to fix it!

Lessons to be learnt...

...from today:
It's not a good idea to also take two scooters and a bike when taking four children out...
Always check your camera before leaving the house for batteries and cards (yes, that one's for you Anna;) )...
Bikes can cause BIG bruises....
Rabbit poo gets in the holes of your Crocs......

But despite the above lessons, we had a great day :) The girls played wonderfully together as always whilst Anna and I sat and gossiped in the garden.We then moved inside for lunch before venturing out to the park for a photo shoot and ice creams.Well, we would have had a photo shoot if a certain someone had come fully equipped! None the less, I still grabbed a few good shots on my fave setting of Auto!(No, the books aren't sinking in yet....)

Everyone managed to tumble , trip or bash themselves in some way except me...so I'm just waiting to fall! Holly had a fall from her bike (on the grass) though we're not quite sure what happened.As a result her legs are a mass of very sore looking bruises :( It didn't stop her though and she was back on the bike a few minutes and tears later.
Once home Anna and I inspected the photos, moaned about the size of our bingo wings and bums and consoled ourselves with some Hazelnut Galaxy....hmmmm, another lesson to be learnt there somewhere too I think!
Anyway, thank you so much Anna ,Izzy and Lilly for coming to see us and we'll see you soon!

She's got wheels....

Today we finally got Holly the new bike she should have had for her birthday last November! We did go looking for one then but she was a bit too small for the size they recommended for her . However, now she has grown fair bit , we found the perfect bike for her (apart from the fact that it wasn't pink!).She has done amazingly well on it so far :) I took her down to the lakes and she did so well, didn't fall off once! To make up for it not being pink, it's been accessorised with a pink Barbie hooter!

This afternoon was spent buying and building said bike plus a trip to Asda for more school uniform.Also stocked up with the essentials for our visitors tomorrow....the lovely Bowkis ladies!! As is the norm for when they visit, rain is forecast! Not to worry, we have mini choc chip muffins for the littlies and Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream for the grown ups!

week 44

of pencil Lines in now live :)

Here's mine!

My supplies this week wer

Scenic Route Metropolis papers

Heidi Swapp ghost heart stamped with Stazon

Rhanna farrer stamps

Heidi Swapp 'Moment' stamp

Stamps Away alphabet stamps

Loads of Angel Kiss flowers

Not much else to share, another day just lazing about in the garden.And we also got to use the new 'big' barbecue :)Love having a corner shop so near we can pop in for burgers and sausages on a whim!

I am off to my my bed...if I can sleep in this heat!I went to bed way too late last night after spending ages talking to Shirl and Lyzzy on MSN :)

Hot hot hot....

..but I'm not complaining :) Didn't get chance to enjoy the sunshine yesterday as I was working and then we went shopping for school uniform and other bits. The girls had a fab afternoon at their/my friends, spending most of their time in the pool.So thankful that I have such a good friend just around the corner from me!
Today we have been very lazy, just hanging out in the garden! Our faithful Princess castle pool decided to get a split today so I'm just hoping I can mend it! It's not really big enough for both girls but still handy to have.
Picked up these fab hair bobbles in Primark yesterday for a huge £1....yes, you guessed it !The elastic is going to be chopped off and I'll just keep the buttons!
I can share a sneaky of my Pencil Lines sketch too....:)

Big thank you to Annie for sending me some more Reese's Pieces today - mwah!

Holly is having a 'sleepover' in Em's room tonight! I have instructions to supply a midnight feast! I dread to think what time Holly will be waking poor Em up in the morning...

Thankful for the Wii...

So the sun has disappeared again as you can guess by the title! Holly and I had a few games of cow racing this morning and then Em and her friend, boxed, raced and bowled this afternoon.
We waited in all morning for the NTL/Virgin engineer who didn't appear.When I rang to complain I was told the appointment was booked as a pm call not am.I don't think so.....So when engineer does finally arrive he has been given completely the wrong information yet again and the cable still doesn't get fixed.So I have now wasted three afternoons/ mornings waiting in for them and I now have to do it again next Wednesday......
Lots of fab stuff going on at the moment (well not for me personally, I am just basking in other peoples glory!!) Anna has secured the fabulous Lucy to teach at the Scrapping Angels retreat.This girls work is truly amazing, I've seen some of it for real!We also have some fab sponsorship coming up Pencil Lines..I am expecting some happy post very soon!:)
Tomorrow the girls are off out to a friends for the afternoon so we are off to hunt out new school uniform supplies .
I leave you with a photo of Holly in her new cheerleaders dress up outfit!
Right, it's late and I am outta here!
Caz, I will do my tag tomorrow!

Woohoo...

...the last two days have finally felt like the summer holidays...lazy days spent out in the garden with the kids playing in the paddling pool :)

Em has discovered that having a tidy room pays as she finally got her mitts on the last Harry Potter...and promptly decamped into the now tidy area under her desk to read it!

Yesterday my sister and nieces came round, trying to get a photo of three children in a small castle shaped pool is not easy...actually it was impossible, without getting somebody's arm or hat in the way of every shot! Holly obligeds though when she popped back into the water on her own after tea!

Today I worked in the morning and we spent the afternoon back out in the garden.I strimmed the front lawn and cut one of the hedges in the back garden as well as painting Em's nails and making gift boxes with Holly.In between that I tried studying the photography books I got from the library last week.What with questions like 'Have you learnt much yet Mum?' and being chief sun cream applier, drink maker and towel finder....I didn't take much in!! I'll persevere....:)

Tomorrow we have to wait in for NTL yet again in the morning (third time lucky maybe?) and then Em has a friend round for the afternoon and teatime.Em's already asked if they play on the Wii and Holly's hoping to get a look in too! Which reminds me, I haven't had a game of cow racing in ages.....!

Cropping day...

....woohoo!! I was actually fairly organised this time having gone through my AMM shoulder tote bag last night and taken out all the paper I didn't need! I managed to get quite a bit done...almost completed my PL sketch for next week (don't faint Anam ;) ), a journal for myself and another layout.I also bought a fab circle chipboard book from Ali.I have started painting it this evening and am going to make a little book of Holly when she dressed up as a pirate!I got so many good photos, too many for a layout, and I want to actually 'do' something with them!
Anyway, it lovely to see everyone at the crop today and I feel 'refreshed' after my day 'off'!

New sketch is live over at Pencil Lines tonight :) Hmm...so last week I used the same tape as Tracie...this week I've used the same paper a Celine...what the heck's going to happen next week?!Unforunately the scanner seems to hate this Autumn Leaves French Twist paper :( , it looks so much brighter IRL!
So this week I used
Autumn Leaves Fench Twist papers
Heidi Swapp tape (again!)
Heidi Swapp ghost alphas
Angel Kiss star flowers
Autumn Leaves journalling panel
butterfly stamp is by Stamps Away

Right , I am off to carry on painting my chipboard!

Still here!!

Just haven't had much to blog about!!

We have spent this week ploughing through all the junk in the girls bedrooms....and it's been painful!How much junk can a 10 year old hoard?? I guess what scares me is that she is so like me at that age....spends hours supposedly tidying but in reality gets nothing done! Anyway, several bin bags later and it's looking better.I just have to persuade her that it's so much easier to put stuff away as she goes along in future.Hmm...I'm not really the best teacher for this tidying lark !

Yesterday I worked on my Pencil Lines sketch for this week...took me an age to find the photos I wanted to use but I got there eventually :)I am off to Anna's crop on Sunday.I cannot wait,I missed last months and seems like an absolute age since I last saw everyone *waves to Ali, Louise and Kerry!* I have a huge list of stuff I need to take for Anna (including Hazelnut Galaxy ;) )

Tomorrow Geoff is taking Holly out in the afternoon for a treat and Em wants to spend the afternoon scrapping with me, I'd better go clear the kitchen table!

I'll leave you with a sneak of my layout for this week.

A Little Bit of Summer.......

...finally arrived in our garden today! This year our Budhlia tree has really taken off and today the butterflies finally appeared too :) We had two peacock butterflies fluttering about most of the afternoon.I love them, they remind me of being little and of my Nan's garden.
I am so thankful that we had such hot weather over Easter (bear with me!) Because it was dry we took the oppurtunity then to empty the shed out.I had been searching for a box of photo albums that I hadn't seen since we moved here three years ago.Although I was convinced they were in the loft, I actually found them at the bottom of a pile of boxes in the shed. I took them indoors and they are now safely in my wardrobe.These albums contain all the photos of Em from when she was born til she was 2 1/2.So , following the heavy rainfall over the past week, I noticed we had a bit of a leak at the front of the shed by the door.This afternoon I decided to empty it out again to see how bad it was...let's just say, the box sitting where the box of photos originally was, was an inch deep in water!!Looks like it is seeping through from next doors side (we have a divided shed beteween us...) where their roof is leaking. So I am just so thankful for the hot weather earlier in the year , I would have been heartbroken to have lost all those photos.
Today has been spent tidying the girls rooms (zzzzz.....), a walk down to the lakes and mopping out the shed!I'm trying to make sure that I get up at 'normal' time so that we don't spend all morning getting ready !
I am off to bed as I don't seem to be able to fall asleep til about 1am at the moment and it's starting to catch up with me!

Week 42 is live!

This week our guest DT member was the amazing Jen Hall.
My supplies this week were
Scenic Route Laurel papers (love the stripey one!!)
Heidi Swapp tape
scalloped bazzill
Angel Kiss blooms
Cherry Arte chipboard butterfly
Big bazzill brads
Lil Davis chipboard alphas.

As per usual, I didn't go with my original photo or idea...but I just love how this turned out :)
Make sure you check out everyone's amazing layouts. And how spooky is it that Tracie and I used the same Heidi Swapp tape?!Bear in mind that apart from Anna and Anam, the rest of us never get to see the DT's original layout or the rest of the teams work until it goes live!

Six weeks....

...of no school !!! Just a shame it was such a rotten end to the year weather wise - the playground was flooded at pick up time! The teachers liked their presents and both girls shed a couple of tears at the Leavers assembly - am dreading being there next year !

This afternoon we went with friends to an open afternoon at the local fire station.I was hoping for photos of the girls dressed up in all the gear but it wasn't to be :( They did have a go at the hose practice though!It never fails to amaze me though the amount of kids that don't understand the concept of getting a queue and waiting their turn.....
Whilst there, the heavens opened and continued to do so for most of the afternoon!
I sat up til about 1am this morning doing my PL layout for tomorrow, planning on a lie-in this morning.I was woken by the thud of Holly falling over downstairs!! Thank you for the well wishes for Em, apart from slipping on the stairs (honestly, my house is safe really!)and landing on it again yesterday she has been fine.
I leave you with a sneak of my PencilLines layout, made with what has to be my most fave sheet of paper in a long while :)

Bags , buckets and a trip to A & E......

So I finally manged to get the presents done for the teachers and their assistants :)The buckets are for the teachers and have Thorntons choccies and hand cream in, the TA's just get the hand cream I'm afraid!Whilst part of me is so relieved it's the end of term (no more packed lunches for 6 weeks!), I am feeling sad that it's the end of another school year :(
It's been a weird sort of day...had some stuff bugging me all day which has really played on my mind...and I think there are some 'traits ' to my personality that I am just going to have to accept as part of me being 'me'.Whoops...getting a bit deep there!
I went to the library today and picked up a couple of books about digital photography in the hope of trying to learn about shutter speeds and apertures etc etc! I was just mooching about the shops thinking how nice it was to have a bit of time to myself before school finishes...when I got a phone call from school.Em had fallen off some playground apparatus and hurt her arm.So I ended up walking to the school as quick as I could to collect her.She'd calmed down a lot by the time I got there.Once home I got her an emergenncy dr's appt.From the Dr's we went to the hospital for an xray .We went in to see our GP at about 3.10, from there we went to the hospital,visited childrens A&E,the xray dept and had the results back and were out of the hospital again by 4.15!! Not bad going! Luckily there is no break so no further treatment's needed :)
Right I am off to my bed!

Potato salad anyone?!

Yesterday I thought I'd dig up some of our potaioes as we have no idea when we are supposed to and were curious to see if they'd actually grown! So here is our first little crop! Not sure if they're supposed to grow any bigger than that so I think we'll leave the rest for a while longer!Geoff's veggie patch seems to be doing better than the girls now as the potato plants have completely covered theirs, blocking the sun from everything else they planted.Oh well, lesson learnt for next year anyway!

And meet Ted, the little clay bear that Holly brought home from school ,made as part of their learning about toys subject:)
So far the last week of school has brought on a few tears for different reasons.Tiredness is the main one I think, but Holly also seems pretty unsettled at the moment.Hopefully we will have a few restful weeks over the holiday and she will be happier in September.Roll on Friday......:)

Week 41

...is now live :)
This week we have our new DT members joining us as well as being sponsored by Making Memories and...having Keisha Campbell as our guest DT'er! Phew, what a week!
I was very late in getting mine done this week, so I haven't really done much else today other than the normal stuff - hoovering, cooking etc etc!
Everything on my layout was supplied by MM, except the stamps that I used for the title and my own MM Heidi rub-ons .
Last week of term this week and yes, I still have teacher & teaching assistant gifts to sort out! This time of year and the beginning of term in September always make me feel a bit reflective....even more so this year as Em will be entering her last year at junior school in September.I so wish there were times when I could just pickle my girls and keep them as they are forever.
Quote of the day has to come from Holly who, at bathtime time declared 'I'm going to get a tattoo...when I'm 44.I'm going to get a butterfly on my bottom'!! Somehow I doubt she'll be waiting til she's 44......!!

Oh and being very blog technically challenged,I am so pleased that I have finally got round to adding the PL girls blog links!I just have to go make sure they all actually work now!!

New favourite :)

No news as it's been pretty quiet here, just wanted to share this photo I took of Holly this afternoon, I love it! But when did she get so grown up?!

Sports day

Yes, it is that time of year again...I spent all day running between school and work to catch both girls in action:)
Holly's took place in the morning.She did so well considering she was the only one in her group representing her 'house' and won at least five of her activies.All that throwing & catching in the garden has paid off!
Em was really excited to be helping run the events in the morning, see photo of her proudly holding up her number!
Em's turn came in the afternoon.I'm so proud of her as she really doesn't enjoy running, but she took part in the relay and gave it her all.
Still no sign of their school reports but they did find out who their new teachers will be yesterday.They both seem happy.
No sign of any scrapping going on here sadly....yikes, what'll I be like during the summer hols?!

The trouble with ....

...scrapping friends is that they show you stuff, make you want it....and then you can't find it anywhere!!Anna showed me these fab stamps this afternoon on Martha's blog, and now I neeed them to do some LO's of Holly in pirate girl mode!So if anyone sees some on their travels , please shout me!
Finally got the phone line back today - yipee! Before the engineer guy had chance to drive off I was on the phone to Anna!!You just can't beat a good old gossip whilst surfing and comparing scrapping finds!
Tomorrow the girls find out who their new teachers are.Feels a little strange as I don't really know either of the teachers that Holly could get.

Thought I would share a picture of one of my pink lillies which have just come out :)
Don't forget to check out Pencil Lines as we now have our neww DT girls with us :) We go 'live' on Sunday with some fab sponsorship!

Ahoy there me hearties....

...don't you just love it when the kids dress up?! This evening Holly's Rainbow group had a fancy dress farewell party for the Rainbows moving up to Brownies next term .Holly recently declared that the next fancy dress party she got invited to, she wanted to go as a pirate....so a perfect oppurtunity! I added some tattoos to her arms using an eye liner pencil and she wore the necklace to show she was a 'girl pirate' - sweetie!

Today I got some passport photos done....err....they are are awful!! My hair is the longest I've had it an ages, but being so fine and standing against a white background , it knocks about 4 inches off the length as my hair just goes see through.Yuck, I will NOT be sharing them !

Here's the layout I did last week.Anna's popped it a bit for me as I just couldn't get the colours right.I went a bit mad with the paint as you can see!

Shock horror...

...no rain for two whole days!! Which of course does has it's downside as I now have a whole heap of ironing to do!!
Yesterday I spent time out in the garden, weeding, cutting the hedges and a bit of careless strimming...whoops, say no more! But really...cables should be buried under the ground shouldn't they?!In the afternoon the girls went out with my mum & dad to a village fete, giving me time to dust , hoover and de-junk the living room :)
After all that hard work I decided to take it easy today and we have spent the day lazing in the garden, playing piggy in the middle,running races and tennis!(Maybe not so lazy after all then....!)I think Holly's face says it all....

So isn't it typical that as the summer returns...I got a Winter clothes catalogue come through yesterday!! Still, it did have me longing for some gorgeous jumpers!
As it's Sunday, Pencil Lines is live again with a new sketch (no.40...where did that time go?!
I have to admit I struggled this week...not with the sketch as such but with my supplies.I always seem to use the same things..can anyone recommend something new for me?!
Here's my layout anyway :)
My supplies this week were
Doodlebug sugar coated cardstock
KI Memories Surprise papers
Cherry Arte flower
Bazzill big Brad
Heidi Swapp ghost stars
AL journalling stamp
Sassafrass Lass stamp
white sharpie pen
white bazzill
Sophie alphabet stamps

End of term-itis

This is what Em always used to get at the end of term...tired ,no energy,totally run down.End of term seems to be affecting Holly slightly differently...she broke down in tears and sobbed this morning because she 'only has 10 days left with Miss Picton' She absolutely adores her Yr 1 teacher, bless her! It also reminded me that I need to get my skates on sorting out end of term pressies too!
This evening we went to the open evening at school.Managed to get photos of both girls with their teachers :) Listened to Em's year group singing, no point in videoing it as they weren't up on the stage and we could hardly see anybody! I love it when they have the photos from during the year up on the big Smart board screens in the classromms too !Photo for today is of Holly in the ICT suite this evening.
There is no let up in the miserable weather here...are we really going to have this all summer?!
Finished a layout today (when I should really have been doing lots of other stuff!) Just waiting for Anna to 'pop' it a bit for me (my photos were rubbish!) then I will share :) I got a bit carried away with paint which is a bit unusual for me! It doesn't look anything like how I planned it in my head, but there you go!

Celebrating daughters

.is the Deck of Me prompt this week .following the birth of Emily's daughter Yindi :)

So this was an easy one for me having two of them! I used a photo from the end of a photo session with them , when they were messing around together :) 'Celebrate' is stamped with a KI Verbology word stamp.

Tomorrow we have open evening at the girls school.Em is singing in the Yr 5 choir and we will also be visiting their classrooms.I can hardly believe it's nearly the end of the school year already...Can't wait for the hols (if the sun decides to re-appear) but it feels very scary that Em will starting her final year of junior school in September.They are growing too fast for my liking!

I actually started a layout 'for me' last night...first in a long while! Hopping to finish it tonight as well as starting omn my Pencil Lines layout too.We have some fab sponsors lined up for the future which is really exciting, along with our new DT members :)

Righr, I am off to make a dent in the mountain of ironing in my kitchen!

It's Sunday again....

...so that means a new Pencil Lines sketch :) As per usual I didn't go with my first idea for this sketch ...or even my second! One day I will get an idea ...and go with it!

Anyway, my supllies for this week were

Autmn Leaves Frenxh Twist paper

Autumn Leaves Elegant Flourishes stamps

Heidi swapp letters

Playing cards from a Christmas cracker!

Doodlebug paper frills

Holly loves playing Texas Hold 'Em...but in her own unique little way calls it Texas Hold Me instead !!

I was planning on scrapping this evening, but I started watching the Diana concert and that was it.I have to confess to blubbing my eyes out at the end just as I did nearly 10 years go :(

Can't believe it's Monday again tomorrow!
Yesterday morning we all went bowling :) Em came out as the winner...though I have no idea how, she has the scariest bowling throw I have ever see...seems to work though!
After lunch Geoff took Em into town to get her ears pierced...she is growing up! Definitely wouldn't have let her get them done any younger.But she has been pretty good at taking care of her brace and seems to understand the responsibility of taking care of her ears too! The Croc shop also finally got her purple Crocs in too so she cane home a happy girl :) Holly and I amused ourselves by making choc chip cookies and then playing with the Hama beads.As you can probably guess it rained non- stop all day!

Today has been a better day weather wise - I even got to sit out on the sun lounger this afternoon!